Beach Weekend!

Months ago, Megan and I had the idea of organizing a weekend getaway with some of the women in our ward.  Megan had a friend who'd said we could use her beach house, and we certainly couldn't waste a free house!

We managed to make it happen in September and it was so fun!  We began Friday morning, sending our kids off to school, meeting up at the Knuth's, and then me driving us from there in the van.  Even a 5-hour drive doesn't feel too long when you stop for lunch at Chick-fil-A and then again for a bathroom/gas break-- the time flew by!

The house was on the bay side, and you could see the water past the other houses.  And there was a purple house behind us that I kind of loved!

Seriously, how cute is this house???

I feel like you can only get away with having a house this color in a beach town!

And we had to go see the ocean side, where the tide was washing up against the base of the stairs, so we looked at the waves for a minute and called it good:

Amy, Allison, and me

After everyone had claimed a bedroom and I'd gotten a quick nap, we got dinner at a pub called the Whalehead Brewery.  They had all kinds of fun pizzas, we enjoyed trying a bunch of them while watching various trivia groups competing.  Angela slipped answers to the table next to us who knew NOTHING about Full House.  Then we hit the grocery store next door and headed back to the house.  We watched Edge of Tomorrow and ate ice cream and stayed up way too late.  It was delightful.

I look like I just got caught shoplifting or something.  I promise you, I was not stealing anything!

Pretty sunset!

The next day we actually managed to walk on the beach.  Or rather, Amy, Allison and Megan did.  Angela stayed at the house because she hates sand (???) and I just sat in a camping chair reading my book and admiring the waves.  And the crabs.

And we played games (okay, I read my book and then joined in halfway through)

Angela, Amy, Allison, and me (all our names start with A!)

And there's Megan, too!

And another pretty sunset!!!

Here's the whole gang!

The next morning we went to church in Kitty Hawk, and then we visited the Wright Brothers landmarks.  I'd already seen it when we went in 2021, but right after that I actually read David McCullough's book about them and was totally more impressed once I knew a little more about them, so I probably enjoyed seeing the national park more the second time around!

We followed that up with lunch at Five Guys (where the potatoes came from Sugar City, where my friend Sarah's son is serving his mission right now!!!) and then headed home-- I needed a quick nap before I was ready for some more walking on the beach (the first time it had been sunny when we were there)!

That's me!

More games-- this time playing Code Names

Unfortunately, we also figured out that the house had at least one sizable cockroach, so that made everyone considerably less happy about being there.  This is Clarence.

It was a lot of fun, but I was very excited to get home the next day.  We got all packed up in the morning, washed all our bedding and towels, and headed out as soon as the last load was in the dryer.  It was nice to get to see the water and have fun with my friends, but I was also very anxious to get back to Craig and the kids-- I'd missed them so much!